Routt beats Hawks by 3

Dennis Mathes, dmathes@myjournalcourier.com

Published
11:43 pm CST, Thursday, January 18, 2018

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Routt beats Hawks by 3

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CARROLLTON — The Routt girls’ basketball team built a 10-point lead midway through the fourth quarter and withstood a late Carrollton rally to beat the Hawks 50-47 Thursday night and remain undefeated in the Western Illinois Valley Conference.

Carrollton had a chance to tie at the end as Ava Uhles got behind a screen and took a three-point attempt, but the shot missed, and Routt’s Bella McCartney grabbed the rebound, securing the ball and the victory.

Carrollton’s Hannah Krumwiede, a junior, scored the 1,000th point of her career to end the second quarter.

“I think you can definitely tell we haven’t played in a couple weeks,” Routt coach Joe Eilering said. “Let’s give them credit. They ran their offensive sets very well. Offensively, we were not very smooth in the way we ran our offense. You know what, though — we hit some big free throws at the end. It wasn’t pretty. And we needed that game. That’s a good team, and that was a good win for us.”

Routt had a hard time shaking the Hawks Thursday night. The Rockets led 11-8 at the end of the first quarter, 22-21 at the half, and 37-34 going into the fourth quarter. But Routt outscored Carrollton 9-2 to start the final period to take a 46-36 lead. Routt’s Sydney Walker rebounded her own miss and laid it in to start the run, then Lacey Schierl hit a three-pointer for her only points of the night. McCartney backed in for a layup, then Madi Fellhauer drove the baseline, pulled up and made a short jump shot to increase the lead to 10. At the other end, Carrollton went 1-for-6 from the floor and turned the ball over once during the Rockets’ pivotal run.

But it was a wild finish. A three-point play by Grace Cox, followed by a driving scoop shot by Krumwiede helped the Hawks cut the lead to 48-41. Routt missed a pair of free throws, and Claire Williams hit a short jump shot to cut the lead to 48-43. Routt missed at the other end, and Krumwiede fed Rhoades cutting down the lane for a lay-in to make it 48-45. Carrollton regained possession on a held ball, and Williams followed her own miss and put in a short jump shot to cut the lead to 48-47. But Routt’s Kirsten Huffman stepped up and made both ends of a one-and-one with 33.9 seconds left to push the Rockets’ lead to 50-47.

Carrollton missed a two-point shot, and the ball went out of bounds to Routt, but the Rockets missed the front end of a one-and-one and Williams got the rebound to set up Carrollton’s last shot.

Routt’s Katie Abell, double-teamed every time she touched the ball, finished with a team-best 11 points. But the Rockets got points from a lot of different places — including 9 points from Ellie Abell, 6 from McCartney, 6 from Fellhauer and 5 from Walker — to help make up the difference.

Carrollton’s Kaylie Rhoades had a break-out game, making nine shots and finishing with 18 points. Krumwiede finished with 14.

Coming into the game, Krumwiede needed just seven points to reach 1,000, and she couldn’t have made a tougher shot to reach the milestone. She drove in between two Routt defenders with the ball on her left hip, switched to her right hand and laid the ball in at the buzzer to cut Routt’s lead to one point going into the second half.